Columns

Editor’s note: These are excerpts from a speech by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., to the U.S. Senate this week.

I rise today to give my second speech this week discussing the issues we are facing as a nation following last week’s tragedies in Dallas, Minnesota, and Baton Rouge. This speech is perhaps the most difficult, because it’s the most personal.
In many cities and towns across the nation, there is a deep divide between the black community and law enforcement – a trust gap, a tension that has been growing for decades.

Since its inception, the J. Marion Sims Foundation has been focused on sustaining and strengthening the health and wellness of Lancaster County, Fort Lawn, and Great Falls. During our 20-year anniversary, we are actively planning for the future and asking questions about the health of our region.
Where do we excel as a community? Where should we focus? What are your dreams for the community where we live, work, and play? What makes this a great place for your children? What would make our quality-of-life even better for your children’s children?

Every time I write about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, it sounds repetitive of what we can see and hear on TV and radio. I don’t think there is anything I can say that is going to inform or change someone’s mind about who to vote for, because I think people have heard it all and have made their decisions based on things like family, tradition and party loyalty.
Having said this, I would like to challenge voters to consider something else in their decision process.

Philando Castile, a black man in Minnesota who was shot and killed by a 28-year-old police officer named Jeronimo Yanez during a traffic stop, was about my age.
We might have had plenty in common, or not much at all. But when details of his killing emerged, I learned of one potential similarity between us that also set us a world apart: Like Castile, I have a permit to carry a gun.

Revolutions must be popular because they have happened so often. In the Third World, revolutions are almost a national sport.
Those revolutions are actually tyranny taking over another tyranny. Every revolution in history has always claimed to be carried out in the name of the people, but the people never get to run things.

E Pluribus Unum or out of many, one.
This 13-letter phrase became an official part of the Seal of the United States by an act of Congress in 1782. It was the de facto motto of the United States until Congress officially made In God We Trust the national motto in 1956.

What were my feelings about the FBI findings on Hillary Clinton? First, I must say that I didn’t expect an indictment because she is a Clinton.

If she had been before a grand jury and lied to them the way she did to the American people, she would have been in the same trouble Bill was in, but Bill was only impeached, disbarred and forced to pay an $850,000 settlement to Paula Jones. That would be a lot to some, but there was no jail time.

You hear of things happening all the time and you are concerned, but when it happens to your family member it really takes a different tone.

After so much publicity about the veteran woman in North Carolina who received the note on her vehicle telling her she should be ashamed to park in a designated parking area for vets, we would think people would learn to be a little slower to assume.